Drifting Into Madness
by yuki san1
Summary: This is the prequel to "Silent Madness". This story is just how Sakura went insane and the events that lead to Sasuke returning to Konoha.


(Ah, soo long since I posted anything eh? Anyway, I was inspired to put this up here and begin the prequel to Silent Madness. Disclaimers: I don't own so whatever )

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sakura Haruno, the pink haird kunoichi, was aware that her first love, Sasuke Uchiha was going to leave the village in search for the man who had called himself Orochimaru. If he wanted to leave for power, she knew there wasn't much she could do to stop him if he really insisted.

But that didn't mean that Sakura would have feel better knowing that she didn't even try to attempt to intercept him and change his mind…

It went as she thought it would; he wouldn't listen to her. Sasuke never listened to her when she desperately needed him to. It pained Sakura that he never gave her a chance when it concerned him or his plans.

The only female member of cell seven hadn't intended to profess her love for him, it just came out when Sakura's brain began to shut down and go on auto pilot when he'd do anything to get away from their home, Konoha.

It not only hurt her when he visibly didn't show any interest in her claim of love, but also when he disappeared right behind her and whispered something that she'd never forget…

"…Thank you…"

Then coldly knocked her unconscious without another thought.

Something wasn't right, Sakura knew it. The temperature surrounding her was too cold to be her rooms', but she couldn't quite place it even though it felt familiar.

Only when the pink haird ninja opened her bright eyes did she notice two things,

One, Sakura just woke up on one of the benches that were in front of the gates of the city both in and out.

Two, there was an old couple just standing around staring at Sakura, probably wondering why on earth would a young girl such as herself be sleeping on a public bench.

The old couple had to be at least twice her sensei's senior. The woman had soft gray hair that was pulled in a very loose bun and seemed to have trouble keeping her baby hairs under control by means of hair berets. The withered face had sagged with the frown of confusion on it.

The man, who had his arm inter linked with his wife's, had very short stiff hair mixed with different shades of gray, and a white streak bordering his angled face. The look on his face mirrored the woman's next to him.

It took Sakura a couple of seconds to figure out the reason for the second thing, and blushed when the old couple started rummaging through their purses and then produced some money. Oh god, Sakura thought aghast, this sixty-year-old couple meant to give her money as if she were homeless!

"Oh boy, man my house was so noisy last night, I just had to get away and find a nice quite place to sleep. You know, tons of brothers and sisters just nagging, and when they're not asking for things, the house gets shook up with their many fights! You know, the kind that just seems to shake everything?" Sakura put a hand behind her head and smiled, pretending to be embarrassed about a family that had no control what so ever.

A little silence followed her made up story, but then the older woman put the money away and touched her husbands arm, "Why yes we do. Grandchildren seem very rowdy these days…" The woman said and laughed at the image she pictured with her family.

"And not to mention, they always seem to be in need of money…." The man grumbled, and began ranting to himself about running on broke now days.

The woman narrowed her eyes slightly, playful, "Now I never hear you complain when they do ask, and in fact, you're always offering it out!" she said in a huff, and then had a laugh at the man who in turn turned red from blushing.

"Well, I'm very sorry for troubling your from your schedule today, Ma'am, Sir. But I had better be heading back before Papa sends some ninja's after me thinking that I might have been kidnapped!" They laughed and then bowed to each other, and off Sakura went, straight for the Hokage Tower to inform Tsunade, the new Hokage, that Uchiha Sasuke had left within the night.

Sakura had barely broken a sweat by the time it took her to reach her destination. When she knocked on the door to the Hokage Tower Shizune quietly opened the door and asked her what her business was.

"Excuse me, Shizune-sama, but Sasuke-kun left the village last night!" Sakura exclaimed, and then took in a deep breath to keep the oncoming tears away and under control. Just saying that made her heart clench in a painful way.

After a moment of processing the little bit of information, the older woman sighed and replied, "I think you had better tell the Hokage about this."

Shizune knocked on the door, and waited for her leader to answer. She had to be very patient when it came to her teacher. Then a voice mumbled to go away and leave her alone. Shizune smiled. If it were not an important matter, then she would have done just that.

"Hokage-Sama, this is really bad. You need to wake up. And Haruno Sakura needs to speak to you." Shizune paused and then added please.

"Alright, alright… sheesh, just when I get to finally catch some sake induced dreams…Send her in." Tsunade grumbled.

Sakura opened the door to her office, almost feeling bad for interrupting the Hokage's personal time. She walked through the door and saw the big-busted Hokage sitting behind her desk, papers staked all over it. There was a small red spot on her forehead, Sakura assumed from where the Hokage had been sleeping.

"What is it, Haruno, that is so important to come in here and see me without an appointment?" The blonde asked as she intersected her hands and put her chin on top of them.

"S-Sasuke left the village last night…" She bowed her head. It turned out that saying it a second time didn't seem any less awful than the first.

Tsunade sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten. It wasn't really a surprise that the Uchiha brat left, but it was still unacceptable. Then she released and the angry air turned into an irritated sigh.

"Thank you Haruno, Sakura. Do you happen to know where he was going?" Not that she didn't already know where the younger Uchiha was, but she wanted to know what had been said the previous night between the two teammates.

"W-Well… He said that he had to get stronger, no matter what. I figure h-he's going to be headed towards Orochimaru to obtain his goal." Slowly, Sakura's mentality was closing on itself and going on autopilot while she fought the raging war in her heart.

"Just as I thought. Thank you, you may leave."

Sakura's feet carried her to her house, not very much aware as people passed her on the road. She badly wanted to break down, cry or scream, and blame the world for every bad thing that happened. But the green eyed girl knew that she couldn't, at least not until she was in the safety of her own rose colored room. Sakura didn't get past the kitchen where her mother was making breakfast.

"Hey Sakura, did you have a meeting with your sensei?" asked her mother when Sakura walked through the door.

Telling the truth would be painful, and her parents would eventually find out that one of her teammates would now be considered a missing ninja, but Sakura couldn't find it in her heart to utter the words again.

"No, but I did go outside to have a little jog. It was really cold this morning," Sakura felt relieved that the cold part was the truth at the very least, "so I figured what better way to warm up then a nice jog to get your blood pumping?"

Sakuma smiled, her daughter was so young and so full of energy it made her think about how she was when Sakuma was that age. Turning off the pot and stove she began to arrange scrambled eggs with two pieces of sausage on the plate and then retrieved toast that had just popped up.

"Hey mom, uh… Where's dad?" Looking around Sakura didn't see him, which was pretty unusual since he usually ate breakfast with everyone this early in the morning. It was almost always tradition to eat together in the morning before her mother had to go into town to manage the little shop she owned, before her father had to do to work making good special quality shinobi tools to ninja who request it and before she had ninja training.

"Oh, the Hokage sent a messenger a little bit ago to summon him. Though the messenger did insist that your father wouldn't be too long. Anyway, here's your breakfast."

Sakura sat down at the table and for a moment stared at her food. This type of breakfast would usually be devoured in a mere matter of minutes, but she found it so hard just to lift the fork up from the table and let her hand hover over her steaming eggs. Then a small glass of orange juice appeared to her left after Sakuma poured it and set it down next to her plate.

Sakuma was a little worried by her daughter's behavior. The morning was Sakura's favorite time of the day and she was always chipper. But now seeing her hesitate over her breakfast, Sakuma wondered if something was wrong. Her maternal instincts screamed that something was off, but Sakura would talk when she felt she was ready.

Catching the look on her mother's face Sakura plunged the fork into the yellow masses that steamed and winced when the fork made a screeching sound as metal fork slide heavily across china.

"I'm sorry." Sakura said and lifted her food to her mouth and forced herself to eat. Before Sakura realized, she had already consumed the plate's contents. Though now the food sat in the bottom of her belly like lead. Smiling up to her mother she excused herself and went upstairs to get ready to meet the rest of the day.

She moved through the motions of taking a shower and getting dressed and then her vision seemed to dull and blur when she began walking to the old bridge where team seven used to meet at occasionally.

A blur of yellow and orange ran towards her and stopped when he almost passed her up.

"S-Sakura! Sasuke, he…he!" Naruto closed his eyes painfully and fought not to cry. He knew that Sasuke had been a little sore when he notice that his wind attack left a huge hole compared to the little crack that Sasuke's chiordi left. Naruto would have never guessed that his all-time rival, comrade, his friend would leave for power when him and the whole team were just beginning to get stronger.

"Naruto, I know." Sakura let out a choked sob and tried to stop the tears that pricked her eyes from falling, but it was inevitable.

"Tsunade-baa-samma is going to send a team to go after him and I'm going to tell the others." Then Naruto rambled on and Sakura had difficulty listening to him especially when static began to resound inside her head.

"I…I couldn't stop him so Naruto…please bring him…back." She cried as Naruto looked at her with a quick determination in his eyes.

"Sakura-chan, I'm going to bring Sasuke-teme back even if I have to break every bone in his body!" He exclaimed and let a small smile grace his face.

"Naruto…"

"That's a promise of a life-time, believe it!" He gave his crush a lame thumbs up and then dashed away to gather the rest of the team to track Sasuke down and bring him back.

Sakura sobbed and the static began to go deafening. Just like the food in her stomach, she felt a sensed a foreboding doubt that everything would turn out horrible and it sat at the bottom of her stomach like lead.

Then she vomited as the static stopped and everything was eerily quiet.


End file.
